Nearly two weeks after being the subject of one of the 
largest data breaches in business history, the PlayStation Network will go back online this week, Sony announced Sunday morning.
The company, which says the service restoration will be a phased one, also discussed several new security enhancements, as well as a program meant to encourage gun shy users to return to the PSN.
While Sony says it is still unsure if the hacker who broke into its PlayStation
Network and Qriocity Music Service was able to access credit card information, consumer advocates are on high alert.
The potential that criminals could run up fraudulent charges is a logistical nightmare for consumers — even if they won’t be held responsible for those bills. But beyond the consumer impact of this data breach, which is one of the largest on record, corporate America is bracing for a potential impact.
Sony’s acknowledgement that hackers have compromised 
its PlayStation Network put 70 million subscribers on alert — and left a lot of people with a lot of questions.
The security breach has many people worried about identity theft and, if they had made a digital purchase on the console, whether their credit card information is safe. Finding the answers can be a challenge, so here’s what you need to know about what the attack means for you.
Six days after a security breach of its PlayStation Network, 
Sony said Tuesday that the incursion was much worse than expected and hackers had obtained personal information on 70 million subscribers.
The company, in a blog entry posted Tuesday afternoon, added it is still unsure if the intruder also obtained credit card data for members who have that on file with the service, which provides online functionality for the PlayStation 3.
Hackers have managed to cut Sony off at the knees in several of the most competitive aspects of this generation of video games.
For the past five days, the PlayStation Network has been offline—making it impossible for PlayStation 3 owners to play multiplayer games, download updates to titles or use their PS3 to stream movies and music. This represents the most serious outage the service has faced since its start in 2006.
Faced with rapidly declining sales and a less 
enthusiastic than expected reception to its newest handheld gaming device, Nintendo has confirmed that it will be releasing a successor to the Wii in 2012.
A prototype of the new device, which has been rumored for the past several weeks, will be unveiled at E3, the video game industry’s annual trade show in June.
While the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 
were born with 10-year life cycles in mind, the Wii hit the market with a much shorter projected lifespan.
With no support for high-definition graphics and shaky online multiplayer functionality, everyone including Nintendo knew the Wii would show its age first and would probably be the first console in need of an update.
Now there’s growing talk that the company could announce its successor as early as June.
As the iPhone has stolen the media spotlight and 
been touted as the sole competitor for Nintendo’s dominance of the mobile gaming market, Sony has been somewhat left in the shadows.
That’s understandable, to a point. The company’s first handheld gaming system – the PSP (PlayStation Portable) – never quite lived up to its promise as a true rival to Nintendo’s dominance of the market. And despite the company’s efforts to refresh the PSP brand over the past six years, it never hit the cultural zeitgeist that many expected.
While Nintendo had a lot to brag about in 
March, the overall video game industry wasn’t so fortunate.
Initial sales of the 3DS handheld gaming device beat those of its predecessor, and the powerful Pokemon franchise set new sales records for the company. Despite these achievements, overall retail software sales fell 16 percent last month and revenues on the whole were down 4 percent, according to The NPD Group, which gathers sales data for the industry.
Despite the release of several high profile games, including
a new entry from one of the largest franchises in the industry, video game retail sales for March are expected to tumble once again.
The NPD Group will release March brick and mortar sales figures Thursday after the market closes. Analysts expect software sales to fall between 8 and 10 percent. One of the major factors they’re citing is the shift of this year’s Easter holiday into April.
Chris Morris: Journalist 